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Maintenance

Maintenance Day, Fairing Swap, Crash Bars Fitted

Yamaha Fazer Fairing SwapIt’s been a busy and productive afternoon, I managed to grab a few hours and some nice weather to tackle some jobs I’ve been waiting todo for some time. I swapped over my new genuine Yamaha fairing and fitted some genuine Yamaha crash bars.

You may have previously read how I had picked up a Fibreglass fairing copy, which I had been meaning to send to a local spray shop. Time and money delayed that, however in the mean time Yamaha had drastically reduced the prices of their fairings, from £450 to £180, with these supplied fully painted. With a spray shop quote coming in at around £100-120, it was a no brainer.

I still need to source some decals and swap the Yamaha tuning fork badge on the front, but all in all a reasonably straight forward job to swap everything over.

FazerFairingSwap2

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Maintenance

New Front Tyre and Lesson Learnt

New Metzeler Z8 TyreOver the last couple of weeks I’ve been battling with a niggling issue of wobble from the front end. I’ve had the wheel re-balanced, kept checking tyre pressures, but never really resolved it. I was about to dismiss it as my large top box and rear tyre starting to square off. However throughout my front tyre has always needed a bit of air each week.

This last week however, it quickly became apparent that I had a slow puncture. My old Metzeler Z6 tyre was nearly a year and half old and showing only a couple of mm left, so I ordered a new tyre, whilst I could still ride about. That was until one morning I found it totally flat. Hoping I could pump it up enough to get to garage, I found air hissing out of the valve like crazy. Yes, the valve, there was no hole in the tyre – Doh!

After a quick trip to Halfords to pick up a valve tool, it turned out the valve core was super loose. Quick tighten and the tyre held up well. Hmmm, but what to do with the new tyre on order? Decided to swap anyway, the old Z6 would have only last a couple of months and I was keen to try out the new Z8. Ultimately, on two wheels we need as much grip as we can get, it’s a false economy running rubber until the very end.

Moral of the story, got a slow puncture, check the bloody valve first!

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News

Bike Gear Deals at Lidl, Aldi and GetGeared

MTR K12 Flip-up Motorcycle Helmet Silv
MTR K12 Flip-up Motorcycle Helmet – £40

The biking season is almost on us, for you fair weather riders that is. 🙂 There’s deals on Lidl (from 27th Feb onwards), where you they’re flogging some basic gear; lids, gloves, thermals, socks etc. Check out the range here.
There will be a range of gear on offer at Aldi from 9th March, again basic lids, gloves, boots and base layers. More details can be found here.

However in direct competition GetGeared are offering some huge discounts on similar gear at similar prices. Check out their offers here.

Categories
Motorcycles News

Visit to MCN Bike Show London 2014

MCN-Bike-Show-2014-03Yesterday we had a family outing to the MCN bike Show down at Excel London, as such not on bikes, but in the car. Bad as we had to pay £15 for parking and get stuck in the rush hour jams on the way home, but good in that we stayed dry and had more room for shopping. 🙂

The show took up a sizeable area of Excel, but ironically was located directly opposite the (push) Bike Show, so cue lots of confused people expectantly finding bikes with (or without engines). A lot of the big brans were present at the show, Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati, BMW, KTM, Harley, Indian, Royal Enfield, etc. However notable there was no Suzuki… On the Friday, the show was reasonably busy, but not too busy and we had plenty to opportunity to sit on many bikes and get a feel for for them. Something the kids loved doing at every step! With Mary’s short stature, it was a great chance for her to check out what bikes suited her best. The Ducati Monster 696, Honda CB500 and KTM Duke 390 all seemed good candidates.

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Uncategorized

A Stroll Around London with Samuel Pepys

Samual-Pepys-Bust-GuildhallOver the last couple of weekends we’ve been exploring the City of London, on the trail of Samuel Pepys. Prompted by my daughter’s school project, we grabbed ourselves some tours from this excellent website and had a stroll around the square mile, discovering all kinds of interesting places we never knew existed. It’s crazy how you can live in London for over a decade but follow the same route to work everyday, visit the same haunts and be completely oblivious to whole areas of the capital. You find landmarks you’ve passed countless times and have no clue of their significance or history. Or you just simply avoided the hustle of common tourist traps, for example this was the first time I had stepped foot inside St Paul’s Cathedral, been up the Monument or even seen Guildhall.

So, if you’re at a loose end in town, fancy something a little more cultured, want to learn some of the city’s history or just hunt out some hidden spots and photo opportunities; then I can highly recommend these walks.

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Motorcycles

Spotted: Yamaha SRX-6

Yamaha SRX-6Whilst wondering around London the other day, I spotted this funky little Yammy. It’s an old SRX-6 (SRX600) from the ’80s, a 608cc single, with kick start. Flopped in the US, but was popular in Japan (along with the 400cc equivalent). Could well become a modern classic and often compared to old Goldstar’s.

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Videos

Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 7 (SMIDSY Double Bill)

We’ve all had a few SMIDSY’s (Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You), but you don’t expect two in less than a minute. Only in Dagenham. Thankfully, with the dry roads and sensible speed I didn’t come a cropper in these two instances. Assume no one has seen you, regardless of lights, hi-vis etc

Categories
Gear Reviews Hardware

RoadHawk RIDE Video Camera Review

Roadhawk Ride crash camera-2It seems every biker wants to be a video blogger these days, strapping a camera to their helmet/bike and recording their rides for all and sundry to watch on YouTube. And why not, decent HD camera are now very affordable and the evidence they gather can be invaluable if some idiot pulls out on you. Which, as we all know, happens far too often these days.

So back last autumn, I spotted this Roadhawk Ride camera on special offer in Halfords and decided to join the vblogging band wagon. With the insurance claim from my incident in September turning sour as the third party falsified a witness, I only wish I had purchased a camera sooner. You will probably have seen some of the footage from this camera on my YouTube channel already, but after a few months of use, here is my proper write up. The Roadhawk RIDE is a dinky little cylindrical camera, just 80mm long and 25mm in diameter, that comes with a plethora of brackets for mounting it pretty much anywhere you like. The rear of the camera unscrews to reveal the memory card and USB socket.

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Uncategorized

Ride to Work Preperation

Rancilio-Silvia-EspressoWith these chilly, wet and dark mornings, getting motivated to get out of bed and get on the bike and head into work is far from easy. Each morning I’m layering up (the Lidl thermals from last year still holding up well) and downing my muesli, but by far the most important item each morning is a nice coffee.

Cue the Rancilio Silvia espresso machine. With a perfect espresso, I’m ready to hit the road and deal with all the shit drivers out there. Highly recommended!

Categories
Videos

Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 6

In today’s video you can see me attempted to filter carefully between some traffic that has just pulled up to a halt. However can you guess what little surprise lies in wait?

The more eagle eyed bikers out there would have noticed the island in the middle of the road to my right and thus anticipate what can happen at these points in the road. In this instance it’s quite obscured, but as you gain familiarity with your daily route you soon learn these features of the road and know exactly what to look out for. It is precisely for this reason it is not a good idea to filter like crazy on unfamiliar roads, it’s so easy to get caught out by stuff you miss or is hidden by the traffic.